A little dialogue practise.

Every so often I like to have a go at a short script. I don’t have any great desire to be a script writer, but I think working in different forms improves your writing overall (which is why I sometimes subject people to my attempts at poetry).

Script writing requires precision, brevity and, obviously, good dialogue. The writer needs to get the plot and characterisations across using just speech and short passages of action, so it’s a good exercise in cutting out the needless fluff.

I began writing Foetal Peter while working on The Quisling Orchid. As well as providing the warm-up exercises, it also helped with honing the erotic prose, something I wasn’t all that familiar with when I started out.